What the Search Engines Looked Like About 20 Years Ago

Maybe it's rose-tinted spectacles but my memories tell me that search results were more relevant back in those days, as far as seeking information was concerned. Nowadays, I get the feeling most of the search results I get are directly or indirectly trying to sell me something.

FWIW Alta Vista was my goto search engine, back then. I've not got much memory of using the others.

I do have a vague recollection that Ask Jeeves painted itself as revolutionary, on launch, in that they encouraged you to formulate your queries as 'proper' sentences, rather than the staccato shorthand we used on all the others.

In reality though, I seem to remember that a search on Ask Jeeves would usually follow this pattern:

ME: What is a <something>?

JEEVES: I don't know that. But I know what a <something completely different> is.

Hmmm... a bit like Alexa now, come to think of it.

It's interesting that every site had directory/portal home pages until Google. Now most search engine mimics Google's minimal search home page with little more than a search bar.

I wonder if things will ever come back around to having directory on the home page?

Coded various pieces of the HotBot one for years